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NEW YORK – The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has strongly criticized President Bushs statement wrongly blaming Israel for causing violence to escalate.

President Bush said on March 7, 2002, that Israel is allowing violence to escalate or causing violence to escalate. (New York Times, March 8, 2002) It comes on the heels of Secretary of State Colin Powells outrageous slur that Israels policy is to see how many Palestinians can be killed. (New York Times, March 7, 2002)

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: President Bush has it completely backwards. If Arafats forces werent murdering Jews on a daily basis, Israel would not be using any military action. Israel is neither allowing violence to escalate nor causing it to do so. Israel is fighting back in self-defense against a terrorist war that Yasir Arafat and the Palestinian Authority have launched against it.

The ZOA president said it is incredible that the Bush administration is telling a sovereign ally under daily terrorist attacks to reduce its efforts to protect the lives of its citizens. He noted that Israels actions against Palestinian Arab terrorists are a fraction of what the U.S. is doing to combat terrorists in Afghanistan. He pointed out that if anything, Israel has been acting with a level of restraint that defies military logic, by frequently bombing empty buildings, parking lots, or runways, rather than striking more important targets that might result in casualties. Israel is undermining its own defense by doing whatever it can to avoid killing Palestinian Arabs, while the Palestinian Arabs are doing everything they can to murder as many innocent Jews as possible.

We urge President Bush and Secretary of State Powell to recognize this simple fact and acknowledge Israels right to use whatever force is necessary to defeat terrorists in Gaza and Ramallah, just as America is using whatever force is necessary to defeat terrorists in Afghanistan.

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The Zionist Organization of America, founded in 1897, is the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States. The ZOA works to strengthen U.S.-Israel relations, educates the American public and Congress about the dangers that Israel faces, and combats anti-Israel bias in the media and on college campuses. Its past presidents have included Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and Rabbi Dr. Abba Hillel Silver.